Life and politics from the Sunshine State's best city

Donald Trump - page 5

A prominent Republican fund-raiser turned critic of President Donald Trump said Thursday it would be a huge economic mistake not to let young undocumented immigrants, called “Dreamers,” remain in the United States.

Like Rick Baker, Justin Bean is a Republican running this November in the municipal elections for St. Petersburg, a very Democratic-centric city. But unlike Baker, Bean is actually talking about Donald Trump.

President Donald Trump‘s decision to do away with his predecessor’s policy that benefited hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants known as “dreamers” has put Florida Republicans in a bind.

Gov. Rick Scott on Tuesday asked President Donald Trump to declare a pre-landfall emergency for Florida in preparation for Hurricane Irma, the Governor’s Office announced. “A pre-landfall declaration will provide important resources and assistance from the federal government and would free up funding sources for emergency protective measures such as shoring up beach dunes, building emergency berms and planning for potential evacuations,” a press release explained.

Tampa entrepreneur Aakash Patel is touting the endorsement of another prominent Florida Republican backing his bid for the District 1 seat on the Hillsborough County Commission. This time It’s Joe Gruters, the Sarasota-region state Representative who also serves as the vice chairman of the Florida Republican Party. Gruters was Donald Trump’s campaign co-chairman in Florida in 2016.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Latvala joined the chorus of so far mostly Democrats calling for preservation of the “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals” program to let young, undocumented immigrants stay in the United States. Latvala, the state senator from Clearwater, directed his call not at President Donald Trump, who has signaled he will end the President Barack Obama program as early as Tuesday, but at Congress and the Republican Party.